Winning!
by Akasaku123
Summary: Sakuno Ryuzaki tired of being looked down upon decided to go all out into winning the favor of tennis, along the way without her knowing she's caught the favor of someone else as well. What's a girl to do?


**Hey guys. Akasaku123 here! I have watched many animes and have thought up many summaries and ideas for many different stories. You see, I have started watching Prince of Tennis over again for the 5****th**** time. A lot yeah I know but for some reason I cannot get enough of it, I've only seen the 2nd season once though which means I've watched the 1****st**** season 4 times before the release of the 2nd season. Anyways, I love RyomaXSakuno, actually Sakuno can be with any of them I just prefer it this way.**

**Anyway I don't like that Sakuno is so girly and clumsy I mean yeah I know that's who she is but sometimes that type ends up getting hated and labeled as annoying. I guess in this story she'll be changed dramatically. Please if you will; read it all the way through.**

**This will be a one-shot, I won't be doing any multi-chapter stories until I finish my previous ones which are taking longer than usual. Anyway here ya GO! Hope ya like it!**

_**Summary: Sakuno Ryuzaki tired of being looked down upon decided to go all out into winning the favor of tennis, along the way without her knowing she's caught the favor of someone else as well. What's a girl to do?**_

**WARNING: Sakuno is very different in this fic, you shouldn't expect the shy girly Sakuno, expect some changes kay ;))**

Sakuno Ryuzaki, a normal 12 year old freshman girl in the tennis club. She had what seems to be dark brown hair, and the same colored eyes, which could be mistaken for dark orange sometimes.

Sakuno as usual was wearing her normal tennis attire. White skirt, pink and white shirt, purple headband, white tennis shoes. Her tennis racket accompanying her and her long twin braided flying right after her. Tennis to her was something to go after, having her Grandmother be the tennis coach for the Jr. high boys, she could get loads of encouragement from her as well as experience.

Sakuno's desire to learn tennis grew after meeting Ryoma Echizen. A tennis prodigy. But no, Ryoma wasn't the only tennis prodigy, their was also Fuji Shuusuke. Their elite captain Tezuka Kunimitsu, the smart and cunning Inui Sadaharu, the loyal Oishi Shuichiro, his fateful and flexible companion Eiji Kikumaru, the two powerhouses Momoshiro Takeshi and Kawamura Takashi and the fearful and snake-like person Kaoru Kaidoh which personally was her favorite. She could learn from all of them, she just didn't know where to start yet.

They all were incredible strong. Not to mention she found out weeks ago that the energetic and witty kid that her Grandmother used to teach became a tennis pro and was also Ryoma Echizen's father. Nanjiro Echizen; he was nothing like Ryoma described him at first. But she began to understand why Ryoma wanted to surpass him so badly. Her grandmother had taught her the basics and she was still working on them currently.

At first it was a little embarrassing that Tomoka would always yell out "Ryoma-sama, Ryoma-sama!" But she was used to it now, she joined in occasionally. But anyone could tell she was shy by nature. Maybe that was a good thing, or maybe it wasn't she didn't know.

Sakuno was a smart girl, pretty too. But she lacked in confidence. Ryoma once advised her to bend her knees a little, loosen her shoulders and to cut her hair which she didn't really understand seeing as it probably had nothing to do with the way she played tennis. But lately she's been getting picked on by the older girls in her tennis class. Mocking her, teasing her, cutting down what little bit of confidence she had left. It was getting to her, slowing her progress down, she wasn't improving either.

Sakuno Ryuzaki was kind, nice and shy. But even so she would learn to play the best tennis she can. That's all she could do. There was one good thing about Sakuno Ryuzaki, she refused to give up, finding hope in the smallest things. Encouragemnt was found whenever she would look at one of the regulars games or matches. Anyone could tell her eyes sparkled whenever she saw Ryoma grab a point from the opponent. It was exciting for her, thrilling even.

Right now Sakuno was in her room, debating on whether she should go practice or take a shower.

She got up, picked up her tennis racket and ran downstairs; informing her Grandmother she was going out.

"Sakuno, why are you going out so late?" Ryuzaki-sensei asked her, while wiping her hands on her apron.

Smiling a bit, she replied quickly while putting her shoes on. "I'm just going out to practice a bit, senpai complimented me on my form earlier today so I want to try it out a bit more."

"Okay, but don't come back too late, and don't push yourself." Her grandmother looked at her worriedly, but began to smile afterwards

"Sure obaa-chan".

Ryuzaki-sensei waved while smiling "Itterasshai!"

"Hai!"

Sakuno ran out the door to see that the sun was already setting. If she wanted to get the courts without anyone knowing she would have to hurry.

Sakuno jog to the courts, her hair swaying behind her but she could have sworn she just saw Kaidoh-senpai running just now.

Kaidoh-senpai was her favorite, she didn't know why nor did she care but his lack of conflict and his determination to win spiked an interest in her. She admired him from afar and even liked his snake-like qualities. And the way he said "Fushuuu" after things was cute to her as well. She liked them all fairly enough but she liked Kaidoh-senpai more. But not as much as Ryoma, which everyone knew _but _ Ryoma himself.

Sakuno was now on the girls' tennis courts. The jog here warmed her up a bit but she still decided to stretch.

While stretching her mind drifted off once again. No matter what she did, stretching, practicing, or just thinking her mind drifted off into well known territory. "The Seigaku regulars."

Fuji-senpai was someone with a curious streak to him. He would be curious no matter what it was, but no matter the time or place if it was something that interested him he would come through with it. Fuji-senpai is a Pisces a very imaginative being. I've heard that he has eaten Wasabi sushi rolls and has lost on purpose only to try Inui-senpai's special juice. Fuji-senpai is ranked #2 in Seigaku's tennis team. Which isn't surprising.

Speaking of Inui-senpai, he is very strange. His personality strikes me as calm and sensible. But he is cunning, finding various unknown things to put in his special drinks he makes Ryoma and the other senpais drink if they fail something. He's also very strong doing 3 times as much training as the other senpais and 5 times as much as Kaidoh-senpai's training which is more that the regulars. Inui-senpai is very interesting but it seems his Data tennis is his strong point. He is someone to look out for in the future.

Kawamura-senpai makes me laugh, I like that he always yells 'GREAT" or "BURNING!" "BABY" and even "C'MON!" all the time, he's strong. I'll give him that. It seems he has a split personality because when he doesn't have a racket in his hands he is soft spoken, shy and caring. But when the racket is in his hand he's loud, strong and aggressive. It seems he cares for Fuji-senpai and lot. He works at a sushi shop ran by his dad. "Doryaaaa!" is my favorite saying out of all his screams though.

"That's enough stretching for now." She got in position at the baseline, getting ready to serve. Whenever Sakuno plays tennis she always gets the sense that she is imitating everyone from the tennis club. She could see it, feel it even.

She would copy their plays, moves and forms and she could never get it quite right.

She served, it was slow. She served again, it was slower, she served again and it had sped up, but not by much. This went on for a while, then her mind drifted once again.

She then remembered Eiji-senpai. His acrobatic, playful and fun to be around. He plays doubles with Oishi-senpai and is always laughing or playing around. Eiji-senpai and Oishi-senpai are the golden pair. Ranking national level. And are always in sync.

Oishi-senpai is the most level-headed of the group; he's a situational player and worries over everyone in the club even outsiders like me and Tomoka-chan.

Momo-chan senpai is like an older brother to me, I love his outspoken personality and I love the way he talks, he loves to win and gets along great with us freshman. He's a powerhouse along with Kawamura-senpai and he is rivals with Kaidoh-senpai. He is also labeled as Segaku's #1 rascal. But I would have to say out of all the moves his Dunk Smash is my favorite.

Captain Tezuka is strict, and his face is always expressionless, but either way, he's stronger than anyone in the tennis club currently. I admire Tezuka-senpai a lot; knowing he is the strongest, I would love to ask him to help me out with my tennis, but it's nerve wrecking, even being near him sometimes, it's like he can clearly see right through me, seeing everything, my heart, my mind, my thoughts, my flaws.

Anyways Sakuno was still serving balls but she was getting tired, but she wasn't going to stop here, practicing by herself was getting her no where though. So she decided to go to a place where she didn't need a person to practice with her.

She walked in the gates, paying her way through. It was dark ,but light enough for her to see. 1 ball shot out through the cannon and she hit it, lightly of course. The next she missed, missed again, missed again and then hit again. It went on like this for a while. "Maybe I should work on muscle training". As the cannon stopped shooting she did 20 crutches and 30 push-ups. That's all she could handle, so she packed up and ran back home for a jog.

What she just did wasn't much of a practice and it didn't satisfy her at all, but she needed to get home, she sweated enough for her to be disgusted by her own stench so she needed a shower…badly.

She took my shoes off and ran upstairs to a shower. Sakuno then ate a little and went to sleep.

**-The next day-**

Sakuno got ready braiding her hair again for the school day, she was going to spend the weekend over Tomoka-chan's making banners and uniforms for the upcoming matches, she put in her sewing kit and scissors, extra fabric as well. She ran down stairs drinking her milk and taking her toast with her, she ran outside deciding the best way to get to school was to jog, so she did.

She passed Kaidoh-senpai who was jogging, Oishi-senpai was helping Kawamura-senpai out with loading their car with big sushi containers, Momo-chan-senpai was on his bike and Ryoma was running after him. Fuji-senpai rode past her in a car, Eiji-senpai was eating ice-cream while talking to Inui-senpai who was writing stuff down in his notebook. Tezuka-senpai was behind them arms crossed and poker face glued on. I ran passed them all seeing Tomoka-chan in the distance.

"Tomoka-chan!"

"Sakuno!" Tomoka looked behind her while waving frantically.

"Ah Ryoma-sama!"

Sakuno looked at Horio-san, Kachiro-san and Katsuo-san behind her and waved.

They waved back and then waited for Momo-chan senpai and Ryoma to catch up.

"Tomoka-chan I'm going to go on ahead to the tennis courts okay?"

"Sure Sakuno, I'll be there in a sec."

Sakuno jogged away, looking back to find Ryoma staring back at her. She turned forward and starting jogging away faster, blush staining her cheeks.

She made it to the courts in time, some girls were already there, freshmen were picking up balls and the others were waiting for the captain.

"Heh, well if it isn't miss goody-two-shoes. You've come back I see, did you practice at all, not that it would do you any good." She started laughing while her arms were wrapped around Sakuno's.

"You got that right, she can't even serve correctly, let alone play a full game."

Sakuno who stared in shock as the other girl walked up to her while patting her head hard, their smiles scared her, but it also sparked something unfamiliar to her, she could feel her heart pounding inside her chest.

**-With the Seigaku regulars-**

"Everyone gather up!"

Ryuzaki-sensei was explaining what was going to happen. "Inui here is going to plan everything out to day just like before." She smiled and gestured towards Inui "Give him your attention!"

"Hai"

"Today there are 3 of my special juices. Inui juice, golder power remix Inui juice and Penal Tea. Their will be games focusing on defense and offense. All rounders will play against eachother, then counter punchers, then aggressive baseliners, and then so on, physical training will start afterwards, then laps. You know how laps go, at first you'll start off easy getting water, but if you fall behind one minute on each lap you'll get a cup of penal tea, then it gets harder, who ever is the last one around the last corner will get a pitcher of Penal Tea." Inui smiled, his glasses reflected the suns light which made him look even more evil than usual.

The Seigaku regulars gulped, knowing what the first two tasted like; they rather not find out what the Penal Tea taste like, even the name isn't somewhat promising, they were in for a rude awakening.

**-Back with Sakuno-**

"Hmm, so you have practiced quite a bit, that serve was incredible even I couldn't touch it. Nor could I counter it and the power was amazing; it was very heavy ball." One girl said

"Hmm maybe it's from these two braids she has, its probably adding power to her serves." The other girl said

"Please stop!" Sakuno yelled while backing away.

"Stop what? maybe we should go soak her clean, she seems a little dirty from all the practicing she's been doing." One girl said

"Grab her!" the same girl said

Sakuno who backed away was getting scared, one of the two girls grabbed her braids yanking them and then wrapping them around her fist.

"C'mon, its fun, we could play double dutch with such long pretty hair."

Sakuno who was stumbling behind the girls as they pulled her hair, was started to cry, her head was pounding because of the yanking and her body was still sore from her previous training.

She could tell that she was close to the fountain, but she couldn't hear anything, her head was throbbing too much.

She felt around in her pockets for her cell phone to call for help but then realized too late that it was with her tennis bag, she then felt some very sharp, cut her finger, while then noticing she had the scissors she was going to give to Tomoka in her pocket. He had forgot to give them too her this morning. She had to think of something quick so she took them out. Getting an idea, hopefully she wasn't going to regret it.

Sakuno pulled back and the two girls stop their laughing and looked at her angrily.

"What the hell do you think your do-" one girl started to say but wasn't able to finish because she was interrupted.

"I don't like it, being called useless; nor embarrassing myself in front of _him_, or having my best friend be better at something that I've practiced everyday for while it was only her second try. I don't like just cheering on the side lines or being pushed away when I'm worried. I don't like feeling anxious about whether he would win or not, and I don't like being pulled around or picked on; but I'm realizing that all of that doesn't even matter and that all I have been doing is sulking around and not even trying to understand tennis.

Sakuno's voice could be heard all throughout the courts.

She didn't notice soon enough that she was now in view of the tennis courts, the tennis courts which were being occupied by Ryoma and the others, Tomoka was there stunned at what was happening before her eyes.

"W-what are you doing with Saku-"

The sounds of scissors cutting through thick brown twin braids was deafening, no one could understand what was happening. All they could hear, was blades and hair colliding, all they could hear were blades finally coming together as they closed.

Kaidoh who was already staring was shocked, even more so it was Ryoma who had started walking out the gates, but Tezuka stopped him, giving him a look Ryoma knew all to well.

"Sakuno." Ryuzaki-sensei started in disbelief.

Sakuno's braids fell limp into the other girl hands which were still wrapped around her fist. Sakuno who had the scissors in her hand watch brown strands fall all around her. Her hair was now short, very short, only reaching down towards her neck; she could now feel a hot burning sensation on her hand and look down only to see that her hand was bleeding, because she was gripping the scissors in her hand too hard.

"Wh-what have you done?" One of the girls asked

"I'll show you! I'll show you both what I can do, I don't need you to tell me how weak I am, I already know; but I'll get stronger, much much stronger. Then I want to have a match with the both of you."

Ryuzaki-sensei, Tomoka, Kachiro, Horio and Katsuo who were just watching in shock moments ago, ran up to her, asking her all sorts questions "Are you okay?" "Are you hurt?" "Do you want to go the nurses office?"

While laughing awkwardly she smiled a bit "I'm fine. I promise."

"Sakuno your hair…"

It dawned on her that her hair was quite important and she could feel an emptiness on the back of her body. But her body was light; it didn't feel quite as heavy before. And before she knew it she looked around to see everyone staring at her, and the two girls gone before her. Her faced turned red and she could hear someone walking towards her, she gasped shockingly to see Kaidoh-senpai.

Kaidoh walked by her throwing his green bandana towards her and giving her his occasional favorite sound "Fushuuu". She smiled thanking him in return.

Fuji and Tezuka smirked at each other and Inui wrote something down in his notebook walking away to go get more tennis balls.

Momo was laughing with Eiji and Oishi while giving them each a high-five.

"GREAT! You did it RYUZAKI-SAN! Doryaaaaa!" Taka san started yelling while swinging his racket around.

Her grandmother smiled at Taka's antics while looking back at her granddaughter "Sakuno, you've grown quite a bit haven't you."

Sakuno stared her grandmother, while nodding a bit, blush staining her cheeks, she then caught Tomoka as she glomped her.

"SAKUNO! Are you okay? Why didn't you tell me they were bullying you!?" Tomoka yelled angrily at Sakuno while hugging her.

While smiling "Gomen, Tomoka-chan." Sakuno hugged her back while wiping off the scissors and handing them too her.

"Woah, that was crazy Ryuzaki-san! How'd you manage to cut your hair so perfectly?" Horio asked while looking and walking around her in circles.

Horio, was asking to many questions at once, no one could keep up so they all just laughed at him, she felt peaceful, she felt calm, she felt confident, heh she felt happy.

Afterwards she threw her hair in the trash bin next to the tennis club changing room and everyone else began practicing, Tomoka was cheering along with Horio, Katsuo and Kachiro and for some reason Ryoma was no where to be found. Sakuno walked passed the tennis courts and towards the fountains where she found Ryoma leaning towards them with a towel.

"Eh Ryoma?"

He looked up at her, his golden brown colored eyes looking up, he then took of his hat and grabbed her hand, pulling her over to the fountain.

He then started washing the dry blood off of Sakuno's hand.

"R-Ryoma, I can do this myself." Sakuno said while blushing.

Not listening to a word she was saying he kept tending to her wound, rapping a dry cloth around her hand, he dried his hands off, picked up his tennis racket and put his hat back on.

"You finally cut your hair eh." Ryoma said while smirking at her

"T-This…"

"Looks good, now you'll probably improve a lot in tennis." Ryoma said while turning forward to walk away.

Sakuno blushed a little, fidgeting and staring at Ryoma's back.

"Get stronger and beat those two girls, then come for me and I'll help you out. Then maybe you and I can play a match." Ryoma said while putting his racket under his other arm and lifting up his hand.

"Ja ne!" Ryoma said while waving behind him

Sakuno stared blankly and could hear bickering around the same corner.

"We'll aren't you over-protective, giving her your bandana and spying on her and Echizen!" Momo said while playfully punching his arm

"Fushuuu, don't touch me you powerhouse idiot!" Kaidoh said while kicking Momo.

"What did you just call me you poisonous snake bastard!" Momo said while pushing Kaidoh

"FUSHUUU!" Kaidoh yelled by pushing Momo back.

Ryoma walked by them smirking, while sighing.

"Mada Mada Dane."

"**ECHIZEN!"**

Sakuno laughed after seeing what she saw and then looked into the sky while blushing.

"I'll get stronger in order to keep doing what I love, I'll get stronger so I can play against Ryoma."

"I'll get stronger for myself, and for tennis."

**THE END!**

_**Sorry if this isn't the end you expected, this is my first "Prince of tennis" one-shot fic. And I'm also the type of girl who loves SakunoXeveryone and no I'm not whoring her off. Anyway. I hope you liked it and tell me what you think. Trust me; I think you'll like it. It's not too mushy or anything, I just don't like Sakuno so girly and I wish they would show that she could play tennis, maybe even serve a couple strong balls at least. But oh well. :))**_

_**Bye bye!~**_

_**Akasaku123**_


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